In League of Legends, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (23) has been one of the best players for years. However, his team T1 fell apart before the 2020 season: he lost two outstanding teammates, Clid and Khan. Yet in 2020, his team is once again considered strong and has just won a battle against Gen G. in the LCK.
Which teammates has Faker lost? Before the 2020 season, T1 lost two key players:
- The strong, young jungler Clid went to Gen.G. – he was the team’s key player in 2019
- Top-laner Khan switched to the 2019 world champions, moving to FunPlus Phoenix
- Additionally, the long-time coach kkOma left T1. He has gone to China.
The two stars have been replaced by relatively unknown players: Moon “Cuzz” Woo-Chan now plays in the jungle for T1, and Kim “Canna” Chan-dong is on the top lane.
World Champion of 2016, T1, vs. World Champion 2017, Gen G.
This was the match: T1 played this weekend against one of the strongest teams in Korea, against Gen G., who were world champions in 2017 – this was the legendary series where one could see the tears of Faker.
Gen G. has built a strong new team around bot-laner Ruler and his support Life. In Korea, they are called “Fellowship of the Ring” because the team gradually formed around Ruler, who is something like Frodo in this formation.
For instance, Clid, Faker’s former teammate, now plays for Gen G. alongside Ruler.
Korean LoL is completely different from ours
This is how the match went: The League of Legends currently being played in Korea differs significantly from what we see in Europe:
- There are few kills, especially in the early phase, almost nothing happens
- The teams are hesitant about teamfights in the midgame, often backing off and waiting for the ideal moment
- In the end, a match often comes down to a single teamfight because the players are so strong that they can take down the base in record time once some members of the opposing team are missing
- Almost everything revolves around “Objectives”, around dragons, Baron, towers, or inhibitors. It is sometimes called “RIVERAM” because everyone is somehow bustling around the Ocean Drake in the river
- And there isn’t just one game per matchup like in Europe, but a “Best of 3”
Ultimately, SKT1 won the series against GenG with 2:1:
- The 1st match ended 12:4 after 43 minutes in favor of T1
- The 2nd match was clearly won by Gen G with 8:1 after 31 minutes
- Match 3 could then be won by T1 with 9:4 after 38 minutes
In this match, the new jungler Cuzz particularly shone. The special thing was that he faced off against T1’s former jungler, Clid.
Faker performed well in the matches that T1 won. In Match 1, he secured 5 kills on Viktor, and in Match 3, he played Rumble with 4/0/4.
Remnants of Scandal Team Griffin are No. 1 in Korea
This is how T1 stands now: T1 is currently in 3rd place in the LCK league with 3-1 wins and 7-4 games. The axis of the team is considered to be mid-laner Faker and bot-laner Teddy. The jungler Cuzz has now earned a lot of praise. Supporter Effort and the new top-laner Canna are still viewed skeptically.
The strongest team in Korea is surprisingly DragonX. The best players from Griffin, Chovy and Doran, ended up there after their team nearly disbanded.
They are trained by their former coach cvMax. He caused a scandal last year for allegedly choking a player . cvMax had actually been banned for life from LoL, but the ban was lifted.
